Research On Provincial Carbon Emission Efficiency And Influencing Factors In China

Since the reform and opening up,China’s economy has achieved rapid development.However,extensive economic growth has also caused serious energy depletion and environmental pollution problems.In particular,the greenhouse gas effect caused by carbon dioxide emissions has become more prominent.On the basis of literature review and theoretical analysis,this paper explores the efficiency and influencing factors of China’s provincial carbon emissions,and proposes corresponding policy recommendations based on its conclusions,aiming at enriching the research on environmental protection theory.First,it analyzes the current situation of provincial energy consumption and carbon emissions in China.In the analysis of energy consumption status,the current status of economic development and total energy consumption are described.The development trends of per capita GDP and total energy consumption in each province and city are analyzed,and seven major regional rankings are given.In the analysis of carbon emission status,reference is made to previous studies to provide a carbon emission measurement method,and a comparative analysis of the total carbon emissions,per capita carbon emissions,and carbon emission intensity of various provinces and municipalities from 2000 to 2016 was conducted.Judging from the analysis of current energy sources and current status of carbon emissions,the differences among provinces and cities in China are relatively large.Provinces with higher carbon emissions are concentrated in middle developed regions.This shows that China’s low-carbon transition is still in a critical period.From the 7 regional Kuznets Curve(EKC),it is found that there is a phased difference between environmental protection and economic development in each region.The inflection point of the EKC curve reflects the difference in the level of regional low-carbon economic development.Second,China’s provincial carbon emission efficiency was measured.In this paper,the carbon emission efficiency is measured by the minimum distance method(mSBM)of the DEA method.Firstly,the concept of carbon emission efficiency was introduced.Then the principle of the DEA method was described.By introducing the SBM model,the mSBM model was introduced.Finally,the carbon emission efficiency values were analyzed and compared from the perspective of the province and the seven major regions.It is found that there is consistency in the ranking of carbon emission efficiency among provinces and cities,but there are obvious regional differences.From a regional perspective,the ranking of carbon emission efficiency is South China> North China> Northwest> East China> Central China> Northeast> Southwest,which is in line with regional economic development level.Related to resource endowments.Third,the factors that affect the efficiency of China’s provincial carbon emissions were studied.First of all,the initial selection of influencing factors is to obtain the initial indicators such as the population at the end of the year,the actual GDP,the proportion of the secondary industry,the total amount of foreign direct investment,the total investment in fixed assets,the urbanization rate,and the number of patent application authorizations.Afterwards,the spatial weight matrix was obtained by geographic distance and standardized.Moran’s I was used to test the spatial autocorrelation of China’s carbon emission efficiency.The results showed that the spatial autocorrelation was significant in 2005,2010,and 2015.The spatial lag model(SLM)and spatial error model(SEM)were selected according to the LM index,and the Haussmann test was used to select the fixed effect.The model that was more suitable for the study of the influencing factors of China’s carbon emission efficiency was the spatial lag of the fixed effect.Model(SLM).The results show that the population at the end of the year,real GDP,total investment in fixed assets and urbanization rate have a significant impact on overall carbon emission efficiency in China.Finally,a fixed-effect SLM model was used to compare the influencing factors of carbon emission efficiency in the eastern,central,and western regions.It was found that there was a strong spatial autocorrelation among the regions,but the effects of the influencing factors were inconsistent,which was related to the level of regional development.According to the conclusions of the study,relevant policy recommendations are proposed.First,we must adhere to the strategy of sustainable development and continue to implement economic restructuring.Second,we must optimize the allocation of resources,implement industrial restructuring,and reduce energy consumption.Third,implement industrial reform and innovation and take a new road to industrialization.Finally,improve the government’s ability to differentiate and increase the strength of environmental protection investment.